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Developing
A Creative Economy
By Pamela Schallhorn, Educator
Community & Economic Development
February 8, 2016
The Speaker • University of Illinois Extension – Community & Economic Development Educator
• Former Vice President of Commercial Lending; Bachelor’s in Finance; Master’s in Political Studies
• Developed a class called Creating the Creative Business in 2010 and have taught hundreds of creative entrepreneurs in Rockford Illinois area as well as two classes in West Loop, downtown Chicago. The course was developed to teach business skills to the right-brain learner, and participants included artists, chefs, designers, filmmakers, writers, musicians, specialty food producers and boutique-retailers. The course was also taught, during the summers, at two Rockford Housing Authority housing developments.
• One of the four contributing educators on Etsy’s 2015 Craft Entrepreneurship textbook.
• Directed the Downtown Entrepreneurship Project in Rockford from 2011 to 2013 for the River District Association including developing the Attitude, Awareness & Usage Survey and the Storefront Workshop Series
• Developed and implemented the Shop Downtown Rockford project in cooperation with 18 downtown creative enterprises (2012)
• On the steering committee that developed the Rockford City Market from 2010 to 2014. Focused on creative entrepreneurial development at the market. The market currently has over 6,000 visitors weekly and dozens of the creative enterprises that were established in the market have expanded into storefronts in downtown and other areas of the city since 2010. The majority of whom attended the Creating the Creative Business course
• Presented on Creative entrepreneurship and its impact on community, placemaking and poverty at the Community Development Society's 46th Annual International Conference in Lexington, KY (2015) Presented on The Impact of the Creative Business! at the University of Chicago's Urban Planning and Policy Students Association’s urban symposium "Back to the City" in Chicago (2014) Presented on creative entrepreneurship and the role creatives played in Reconnecting Rockford at the Congress for New Urbanism's 6th Annual Conference in Chicago (2013
What is a Creative Economy?
• A creative economy is an economic system where value is based on novel imaginative qualities rather than the traditional resources of land, labour and capital.2
• The most valuable assets in a creative economy are people and their personal qualities of imagination and curiosity, their relationships, their intellectual property and their ability to make a fair deal.2
• Some observers take the view that creativity is the defining characteristic of developed 21st century economies, just as manufacturing typified 19th and early 20th centuries.
A Creative Ecosystem “Creativity by itself has no economic value until it takes
shape, means something and is embodied in a product that can be traded (whether tangible or intangible). This, in turn,
needs a market-place with active sellers & buyers, some ground-rules on laws and contracts, and some conventions
about what constitutes a reasonable deal.” J. Howkins (2013)
Creativity Free
Market System
The Creative Economy
Howkin’s 3 Propositions for the Creative Ecology
Everyone is born creative
Creativity needs freedom
Freedom needs markets
Who is the Creative? Open minded – the “dreamer”
Independence of Mind – “single mindedly persistent even when others do not recognize what they are doing”
NOT afraid of change
Challenged by empty space – wants to put something in it!
Well developed sense of humor
Competitive & Ambitious
“We admire creative people because they turn something into something new and we may fear them for the
same reason.” Howkins (2013)
What Creatives Do Not “LIKE”
Rigid hierarchal systems of
management or power DO NOT work
Creatives DO NOT gravitate
towards structure, discipline or the
status quo
DO NOT expect quick successes but a sense of urgency is OK –
keeps them moving
DO NOT steal their work – IP Laws & Education
What is a Creative Enterprise?
Creative enterprises are those individuals and businesses producing and using
creativity of thought, form, design, and language for sustainable economic
growth, addressing opportunity gaps in our communities, regions, and states.
Industries that focus on this activity include advertising, broadcasting,
architecture, crafts, culinary, cultural, design, fashion, film, fine arts, publishing,
and software development.
Attitudes
Respecting the
creatives especially
those you already have
More chaos theory less
control
Out of the box thinking
(not just into a bigger
box)
Work with what is
already happening
Conditions
Unemployment
Educational levels
Millennials
Infrastructure and Placemaking
Population size (metro vs. rural)
Per capita incomes
Culture
“Requires morphing the Protestant work ethic with
bohemian values…into a creative ethos”- Richard
Florida (2002)3
Is the community ready to include the creative
economy into their economic development
efforts?
Is the community prepared to allow the creative to
create something truly new or are traditional
structures or values too unyielding?
Steps to Developing a Creative Economy
1. Become Creative Centric – creatives as assets
2. Be ready to understand and embrace change – breaking the rules is inevitable
3. Focus on identifying existing markets and/or create new markets and distribution channels to allow the creative to sell their product (structural capital)
4. Advertise – Promote – Support!
If the idea sounds weird, crazy or different – you are probably on the right track
Becoming Creative Centric
Permission to be Creative
Please Pay Them! This is
about Economics…
Community Art Projects
Women
Community Art Project – Ottawa, IL
Becoming Creative Centric • Just for: Artists, writers, musicians, boutique
retailers, designers (all types), specialty food
producers and other creatives interested in
starting or expanding a creative business.
• Module 1: Debunking the Starving Artist Myth &
Confidence Building
• Module 2: The Creative Business Idea – Really…
Only One?
• Module 3: Assessing the Competition
• Module 4: Creating Profit
• Module 5: Who is your Customer?
• Module 6: Creating the SWOT
• Module 7: Creating a Marketing Strategy
• Module 8: Creating a Great Customer
Experience!
Creating New Markets
• Public Markets
• Pop-up Shops
• In-Store Events
• The Co-BIZ
• Crowd-funding
• The Café a.k.a shared workspace
• Etsy
• Co-ops
• Galleries
• OR create something new!
“Informal grass roots, street-level, pop-up micro-activities, each of which may be short-lived, but which
adds up to a continuous stream of events and experiences in a market-place of endless information which sharpens the producers’ and makers’ skills and buyers’ appetites.”2
Conscious Inclusion Artistic talents know no socio-
economic boundaries, regardless of
educational attainment, income
levels, mental or physical disability,
race, ethnicity or gender. They can
only be underutilized or ignored.6
Pamela S. Schallhorn [email protected]
618-327-8881
https://www.facebook.com/
u23cededucation
Thanks to Cathy, Gen, Ron, Peter,
Danny, Polly, Lorie, Becky & all
the other creatives in downtown
Rockford!
References 1. Markley, D., Lyons, T., Macke, D. (2015) Creating Entrepreneurial Communities:
Building Community Capacity for Ecosystem Development, Community
Development, Volume 46, Number 5, 2015
http://www.energizingentrepreneurs.org/library/entrepreneurial_communities_resour
ces/issue-papers.html
2. Howkins, John (2001; 2nd Edition, 2013), The Creative Economy, Penguin Books ,
U.K.
3. Florida, R. (2002) The Rise Of The Creative Class, Basic Books NY, NY
4. Sonora-Beam, Lisa, The Creative Entrepreneur, (2008), Quarry Books, Beverly,
Massachusetts
5. Schallhorn, P. (2015) Five Strategies for Retaining & Attracting Youth to Rural
Communities. Available at https://uofi.box.com/5StrategiestoAttractYouth
6. Schallhorn, P. (2015) The Impact of Creative Entrepreneurs on Community,
Placemaking & Poverty, presentation given at the 46th Annual CDS International
Conference, Lexington, KY